BlueLight.com names new CEO
Mass-market retailer Kmart is tapping Richard Blunck as the new chief executive of BlueLight.com, according to sources close to the company.
A BlueLight representative confirmed the appointment.
Blunck has overseen BlueLight's operations on an interim basis since former CEO Mark Goldstein stepped down in May as Kmart drastically restructured its Web operations.
Before moving over to BlueLight, Blunck was Kmart's chief technology officer. Blunck is inheriting a vastly different business than the one launched in December 1999.
Under Goldstein's stewardship, BlueLight operated as a separate business unit. Goldstein, a longtime Internet entrepreneur, was charged with taking Kmart into the Internet age. At the time, e-commerce appeared headed toward wild success.
BlueLight began offering an Internet access service to draw new customers and tried to overhaul Kmart's image to appeal to the typically upscale shoppers found on the Web. But the Internet shakeout claimed many Net businesses and started hitting the tech units of large traditional companies, such as BlueLight.
Other brick-and-mortar retailers that have folded standalone Web operations back into their main operations have included Wal-Mart, Toys "R" Us and Saks Fifth Avenue.